Royal Mail sell-off campaign to launch within days

The Government is to launch the first stage of a low-key campaign to drum up interest among potential investors in the Royal Mail within days.  

Royal Mail

The press and digital campaign, created by Engine Group, will launch in three stages. The first, launching “in the coming days” a spokesman for Department for Business Innovation and Skills says, will simply detail plans for the stock market flotation. 

The second wave will provide information on the share offer period, while the final batch of ads will launch in the weeks before the sale and will inform of the time left to apply. The stock market listing is expected by the end of October.

The campaign will be smaller in scope than the campaigns that promoted the privatisations of the 1980s such as the “Tell Sid” campaign to promote the sale of shares in British Gas in 1986.

Spend on marketing activity is now carefully managed by The Cabinet Office after budgets were slashed as part of Government efforts to reduce the deficit.

Royal Mail is expected to be valued at up to £3bn depending on market conditions and investor demand, analysts say.

The sale of at least 41 per cent of shares to private investors could come at the same time as a strike by postal workers over pay, pensions and post-privatisation conditions of work. Postal workers are to be offered up to 10 per cent of shares.  

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